The LINGUA action within SOCRATES addresses all levels and sectors of education, with an emphasis on school education, initial and in-service training of language teachers, adult education and the development of curricula and language-teaching and assessment instruments for all educational sectors. It complements by means of a number of specific actions the measures relating to language-learning contained in other parts of the SOCRATES program. Certain projects also seek to take into account the specific foreign language-learning needs - verbal or non-verbal - of disabled persons. The use of open and distance learning is encouraged in the various LINGUA activities.

• To encourage and support linguistic diversity throughout the Union;
• To contribute to an improvement of the quality of language teaching and learning;
• To promote access to lifelong language learning opportunities appropriate to each individual?s needs.

It also focuses on the developing of skills in the less widely used and less taught official community languages.